The following appeared on Monday, December 11, 2023, in the Blank Slate Media newspaper chain and on its website, theisland360.com:

For folks who give books at Christmas to political junkie friends and relatives, here are my 2023 gift book picks.

Where Have All the Democrats Gone by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira. The authors, noted liberal political analysts, who predicted in 2002 an emerging Democratic majority that would have a long-term lock on the Electoral College, concede that their expectations did not come to pass. Their explanation: “Democrats have steadily lost the allegiance of everyday Americans—working and middle-class voters—that were the core of the older New Deal coalition.”

They persuasively argue that radical leftist and globalist elites who dominate the party, have been advocating economic and social positions that have driven working-class voters into the arms of the Republicans.

This book should be read by Nassau and Suffolk County Democratic leaders interested in understanding why Long Island has been hit with Election Day red waves in 2022 and 2023.

The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 by Luke A. Nichter.  This book is a much-needed update on the 1968 making of a president.

The events of 1968 were earth-shattering: A little known U.S. senator, Gene McCarthy, drove President Lyndon Johnson to announce his retirement. The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy shook the very core of the nation. And the man written off as a loser, Richard Nixon made one of the greatest comebacks in presidential history.

Nichter, a professor of history at Chapman University, attempts to “rebalance the scales of history” based on documents that have become available in recent years. He rejects “the Democratic consensus … that Nixon stole the 1968 election by committing treason and violating the Logan Act.” And he rejects the “Republican consensus … that Johnson, by creating the illusion of a sudden change in the status of the [Vietnam] War, made a last-minute effort to steal the election for Humphrey, which failed.”

America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything by Christopher F. Rufo.  To understand why conservatives have been losing the war for America’s cultural soul, Rufo’s book is a must read.

Since the 1960s, hardcore leftists have been executing plans to silence, marginalize, and suppress dissent—all in the name of tolerance. The intellectual founder of this ideological movement was the Marxist Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979).

Marcuse, a longtime professor at the University of California in San Diego, called for “the complete disintegration of existing society, beginning with a revolt in the universities and the ghettos” and the eventual capturing of “public institutions and the cultural repression of the opposition.”

His heirs encouraged followers to invade the university system and conquer its administration and academic departments.

The results: Graduates brainwashed by radical ideology professors have been invading all aspects of American life. In just about every field, conservatives have been steamrolled by left-wing culture warriors.

Before conservatives go on an offensive, they should get to know the enemy by studying Rufo’s extraordinary work.

Orwell: The New Life by D.J. Taylor. George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm and 1984, is the subject of an updated biography by his finest chronicler. Utilizing previously unknown sources, Taylor not only examines Orwell “in the context of his time but sees him through the exacting prism of the 21^st Century.”

Taylor contends that Orwell “is not merely a popular writer … he is someone who has quarried his way down into the heart of the human condition and, by doing so, managed to colonize the mental world both of his own age and the ones that followed.”

The Dillon Era: Douglas Dillon in the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Administrations by Richard Aldous. One of the unsung heroes of the 1950s and 1960s is C. Douglas Dillon. The heir of the investment firm Dillon Read, he gave up Wall Street for public service.

He served admirably in the Eisenhower administration as ambassador to France and later as the state department’s second-in-command.

The political world was shocked when President Kennedy chose Dillon to be secretary of the Treasury. It was Dillon who convinced JFK to push for significant tax cuts to jump-start a lackluster economy. And during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was a major voice in the decision-making process.

Dillon was a commanding figure, a true gentleman, noted for being calm, measured, and understated. We need more of his type in Washington.

Happy reading in 2024!